Tutu`s Daughter Says Apartheid Not Dead

February 21, 1990|By STEVE NICHOL, Staff Writer

BOCA RATON -- Changing the mind-set of whites in South Africa could be tougher than ending the discrimination against blacks in that country, the daughter of South African Archbishop Desmond M. Tutu said on Tuesday.

``The struggle after apartheid ends may be even a harder part of the struggle,`` Naomi Tutu said at a news conference at Florida Atlantic University.

``It just hasn`t been an oppression of blacks, but a brainwashing of the white minority ... in terms of thinking they are superior, in terms of them thinking they have a God-given right to rule the country,`` Tutu said.

Tutu, 29, spoke at FAU as part of Black History Month activities.

She also warned about the mind-set of black teen-agers growing impatient with the long-standing approach toward change advocated by her father, the 1984 Nobel Peace Prize winner.

Soon young blacks may ask, ``What has non-violence brought us?`` she said.

Hope for the end of apartheid has sprung with the release on Feb. 11 of black nationalist leader Nelson Mandela following 27 years of prison.

In addition to releasing Mandela, South African President F.W. de Klerk has lifted the 30-year ban on the outlawed African National Congress, released political prisoners and scrapped gag orders on many anti-apartheid activists.

Tutu said she had known how long it would take South Africa to end apartheid legally.

``Three years ago people were saying `Nelson Mandela will be released tomorrow,``` she said.

She urged the U.S. government not to lift economic sanctions or let up political pressure against the policies of South Africa.

``Apartheid has not ended, the struggle is not over. This is not the time for lightening up the pressure on South Africa,`` she said. Praise for de Klerk is premature, she said.

``He seems to have the support of the majority of white South Africans. If he were truly bold, he`d have the support of black South Africans,`` Tutu said.

She called for an end to the guarantee of 87 percent of the land to white ownership, separate and unequal education and security laws allowing blacks to be detained for 60 days without access to legal help.